SamCorp advises on IGF Invoice Finance MBO

SamCorp is delighted to announce the completion of the management buy in / buy out of IGF Invoice Finance (IGF) from Greater London Enterprise. SamCorp were lead advisers to management on the transaction, acting for an experienced lending team led by John Onslow.

The transaction has been funded by Spring Ventures who were introduced to John Onslow by SamCorp. Spring Ventures will initially invest £9m to fund the acquisition and provide growth capital. It will commit a further £11m of follow on capital over the next three years and will take a majority stake. With continued demand for SMA funding, the team intent to grow IGF’s invoice lending platform into an asset based lending business of significant scale.

John Onslow, new CEO of IGF, commented, “The asset based lending market is growing fast. It is still dominated by the high street banks who would in general rather invest in larger, lower risk opportunities and this in turn offers enormous potential to smaller more flexible providers like IGF to fill a gap. With 5 million SMEs in the UK currently employing some 15 million people and accounting for 50% of the economy, there is a very significant funding gap to be filled.”

John Onslow has previously grown and sold two asset based lending businesses including Centric Commercial Finance (sold to Shawbrook in 2014) and Heller Finance (acquired by GE in October 2003). John also served as Chairman of the Asset Based Finance Association.

He has been joined by John Nelson and Jon Hughes in the management team; the three collectively have 60 years experience in the commercial lending sector. Matthew Cooper, co-founder of Capital One Bank and former NEC of AIM listed Inspired Capital, has also been appointed as Chairman.

Peter Samuels and Darren Hurdle worked on the transaction for SamCorp.

Peter commented, “I have known and respected John and the team for many years and am delighted that SamCorp was able to work with and support them in setting up, what I am confident will become, a major player in the asset based lending sector.”